This Privacy Policy applies to the use and processing of personal data collected from you. Samuel Wood (“we” or “us”) will always protect your privacy and will always use the data we collect about you lawfully and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018. We regularly review our privacy policy and we may update it on our website from time to time.

How do we collect personal information from you?

We may collect information about you from a variety of sources. This includes information we collect directly from you, information we collect when you view our online content and information we collect about you from other sources, including publicly available sources (for example Land Registry records).

What information may we collect?

Personal data is information we collect about you which could be used to identify you. This includes:

• Your contact information including name, address, email, telephone number
• Your date of birth
• Your signature
• Financial and/or bank details
• Employment details
• Photographs and details of your property
• Other information which we need to perform the service you have requested

Please note that without your personal data we may not be able to provide a service to you.

Why do we collect this information?

Samuel Wood uses your information:

• To perform its contractual obligations to you whilst processing your transaction, for example, buying or selling a house, or letting or renting a property
• To comply with our legal obligations, for example, The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 and Right to Rent checks under section 22 Immigration Act 2014
• To meet our legitimate interests or the legitimate interest of others which we are obliged to protect, for example, to provide and improve our services to you, or to protect our staff
• To send you marketing communications if you have provided your consent

What do we do with this information?

Depending upon which of our services you have requested or for which we have a contract in place with you, to help you sell, buy, let or rent a property , we may use your personal data for the purposes of providing you with that service.

Some examples are:

• Responding to your requests about properties
• Conducting a market appraisal of your property
• Preparing and publishing your property details
• Arranging viewings
• Obtaining references
• Confirming your identity
• Managing your transaction
• Processing payments
• Protecting against possible money laundering and terrorist financing activities
• Meeting legal obligations
• Responding to requests from regulatory bodies or government departments
• Delivering to you marketing content tailored to your interests if you have provided consent

How do we keep your information secure?

Samuel Wood is committed to keeping personal data secure. We have implemented physical, technical and administrative procedures designed to protect personal data from loss, misuse or alteration. We limit access to personal data to those within our company who have a business need. We keep personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary after the end of the transaction or relationship, or for certain categories of data longer as required by law. For anti-money laundering information this is five years and in most other cases it will be six years.

Who may we share your information with?

We will never sell your personal information to anyone.

We may transfer your information if requested by government authorities, regulatory bodies or to protect Samuel Wood rights and property.

We need to engage third party service providers to perform a variety of business operations on our behalf and may need to share your personal data with them. We supply only the information they need to perform the required service and we contractually require that they protect your information in accordance with our terms and current legislation.

Some examples are:

• Energy Performance Certificate assessors
• Tenant referencing agencies
• Other estate agents in a chain
• Professional photographers
• Property maintenance contractors
• Utility providers
• Software and systems providers including but not limited to BriefYourMarket, Alto
• Website Hosts and analytics platform providers including but not limited to BriefYourMarket, Google Analytics

We may share your information with carefully selected businesses which we believe may benefit you and you have provided consent. This includes financial service providers, conveyancing services, utilities, surveyors and others who may be helpful to you.

Our website may contain links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to the Samuel Wood website so when you visit other websites you should read their own privacy policies.

Do we require your consent?

We do not require your explicit consent to use your information to carry out our core functions of selling and renting properties as we have a contractual need or legitimate business interest to do so. Additionally some processes are required by law, for example, anti-money laundering and right to rent checks.

We do require your explicit consent to send you direct marketing material but information may be sent to you if it is relevant to the transaction and we consider that it will give you the best personal service. We give you the option of consenting separately to different services. You are able to opt-in if you email or write to us, and if you telephone us or call in person to our offices we will ask for your consent preferences and note this in our records.

You are entitled to update your preferences or withdraw consent in the same (or any other) way as you gave it. We will stop using your data for those purposes but if we have another lawful basis to continue using your data, we will tell you that we are doing so and why.

Your rights of access to and removal of information

You have the right to:

• request a copy of the information we hold about you and we will supply this free of charge within 30 days
• request the amendment of the personal information we hold
• request the deletion of the personal information we hold. However, for some purposes, for example anti-money laundering, we are required by law to retain it. If we have shared your data with third parties we will inform them and they will also be obliged to remove your data
• request transmission of your information, in a machine-readable form, to another organisation
• object to marketing communications
• complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you feel your privacy has been violated or if you believe you have suffered loss as a result of unlawful processing of your data

You should be aware that we may request proof of your identity to exercise some or all of these rights.

Samuel Wood contact details

If you need further information about our privacy policy or need to contact us for any of the reasons set out in this policy please:

Email: compliance@samuelwood.co.uk

Write: Compliance Officer, Samuel Wood, 2 Shoplatch, Shrewsbury SY1 1HF